Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Okay, much is talked about the loose NORAD aerostat radar system
today, hashtag blimp, and why shouldn't we (officially a Tethered Aerostat Radar System - TARS, but part of the
missile detector program Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense
Elevated Netted Sensor System - JLENS).

When do we ever get the panicky headline,
"BLIMP LOOSE, RUN FOR COVER!" Blimps are somewhat of an eccentricity
usually found advertising insurance companies or automobile tires in sports
events. While the news media tries to eviscerate the military usage of these
blimps, the Pentagon seems to be defending its actions over its successful usage
over Iraq. It is also important to mention that these balloons float on tethers
along the US border with Mexico (which I assume the loose blimp over
Pennsylvania was doing similarly with the Canadian border) in order to observe
and provide intercept data to airborne smuggling and illegal operations. This
is more efficient than sending these P-3AEW aircraft (granted, these aircraft provide
coverage to areas where the aerostats and over-horizon radar installations
cannot pick up).

And they are pretty aircraft with a slick livery.

The problem is that this came loose from a wild windstorm
brewing in the Northeast coast on the morning of October 28th. And then lots of
people either lost their shit over it, or got a laugh out of it. Especially
with the crippled airship being escorted by F-16s and ripping out power lines (near
Bloomsberg, Pennsylvania) with its tether, leaving thousands without power,
like some enraged Mothra out to seek revenge from its captors.

All we need now is a hot-air balloon Godzilla and we have the fight of the century

But this is not a new thing, despite this weird coverage of
a military blimp in the skies above the US. The United States armed forces has been
testing airship capabilities in observation and even as an aircraft carrier
ever since 1923, with the USS Shenandoah being built in New Jersey, and a
sistership zeppelin (USS Los Angeles built in Friedrichshafen, Germany) were
given to the US as reparations from WWI.

The Shenandoah in pre-bikini era San Diego

Then came the larger USS Akron and USS Macon (785ft/239m,
almost as long as the WWII aircraft carrier sea vessels) which experimented in
carrying and launching 'parasite' fighters (fighter aircraft that cling onto a larger
mothership), the Curtiss F9C Sparrowhawk.

Like the aerostat that came down crashing in Pennsylvania
today, these airships suffered catastrophes in similar storms:

In the evening of the April 3, 1933, the USS Akron sailed
into a thunderstorm off the coast of New Jersey with many Naval and civilian
individuals that were pushing for greater airship usage. The airship was caught
in the wind bursts of the storm and rapidly pitched up and down. As the crew
valiantly tried to save the ship but the storm slammed it into the sea, killing
more than 70 people, including the proponents of airship use (such as Admiral
William Moffett, whom the large airship hangar in San Jose, California is named
after).

Sleek design, but not storm-flexible

It's sistership, USS Macon, was hit by wind shear off the
coast of Point Sur, California. Despite losing control and having the airship
slowly ripped apart by the windstorm, the flight crew managed to control the
ballast and climb so that is slowly descended back to Earth. The airship gently
crash landed in the waters of Monterey Bay, California. The airship was lost to
the depths of the sea, but the only casualties were two sailors (one jumped
airship while it was still too high and another swam to the sinking wreckage to
get his personal belongings).

Obligatory large ship - NYC picture

And even the first big airship suffered a similar fate. In
1925, the USS Shenandoah got caught in a similar windstorm as this one in the
skies of the northeast US. Unlike this blimp, made from strong mylar, the
Shenandoah was too rigid to fight off the storm and it shattered. It fell out
of the sky in three pieces, with mechanics falling to their death with the
engines, others falling through the shearing gaps from the disintegrating
airship, or dropping like a bomb inside the control cabin as it fell away from
the Shenandoah. Most of the survivors were within the airship clinging onto the
catwalks and other parts of the ship's interior as it slowly crashed into the
ground.

This is the part of the ship were most of the crew survived within

The US also purchased an airship from Great Britain, the R-28 (or US Navy ZR-2). But on its third flight, on the 23 of August, 1921, the airship was undergoing turning trials when it suffered a catastrophic structural failure, causing parts of it to explode as it disintegrated into the waters off the coast of Hull, Yorkshire

Storms didn't kill it, but speed and turns did; like a muscle car

The only rigid airship (meaning it has a fixed interior
structure holding it together, like the bones inside of a whale; and unlike the
non-rigid airships of today, including today's mishap aerostat) that survived
was the USS Los Angeles, despite having a few close calls, including getting
hit by strong gusts while moored.

Hello

As of now, media outlets are having talking heads talking
about how much chaos, destruction, and death this airship could've cause and
that we were extremely lucky and asking why did it fly away, etc. In a way, we kind of are lucky since, as of this post,
there are no reported injuries or deaths from this. In contrast to the damage
from previous airships accidents, it also shows that these things are not death
machines out for human blood (similar to how airliners became safer since the
days of the Shenandoah).

These 'blimps' provide ground and air surveillance similar
to the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) system does in having radar aiming downwards to pick up any movement:

The chin that sees things

And we have safer
materials for these type of vehicles than the rigid flammable zeppelins of a
century ago. This is no different than aircraft crashing into the ground
because of extreme weather patterns. We, as the people of the United States,
should not halt our curiosity and dauntless endeavor to better and more
efficient aeronautical vehicles, even if it is a goofy looking #blimp. So listen to the talking heads, laugh with the trolls and jokers in
social media, but also look upward as the marvels of our imagination coming to
life, whether as civilian or military applications.